Drug task forces clamp down in Missouri and Kansas

Wednesday was a busy day for drug task forces across Southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas as officers tried to send a statement to the federal government not to cut funding for the war on drugs.

Law officers spent Wednesday sitting on pharmacies and looking for people buying more cold medicine than allowed, and working search warrants to make drug arrests in an all-out effort to demonstrate what could happen if officers spent all their time fighting the methamphetamine battle.

"Operation Byrne Blitz, Southwest Missouri/southeast Kansas was conducted in conjunction with a nation-wide drug enforcement effort conducted by state and local drug task forces from all over the country," said Barton County Sheriff Shannon Higgins in a news conference in Lamar on Thursday. "This was a nation-wide effort to illustrate the effect federal funding has on the drug enforcement effort in small communities all over the nation. The funding has been especially effective in rural communities of southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas."

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's analysis of President Bush's proposed 2009 budget, some of the successful law enforcement programs are on the chopping block, including the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, the Judicial Assistance Grant (JAG) program, at the Department of Justice, and the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program at the Department of Homeland Security.

The program that most concerns local drug fighters is the Byrne Grant program, which provides operational funding for local drug task forces. Under the Byrne Grant program, the federal government provides 75 percent of the money and the local agencies provide 25 percent.

Higgins said the proposed federal budget would cut Byrne Grant funding by 68 percent.

"That money is what we use in operations," said Larry Stout, director of the Jasper County Drug Task Force. "It would mean cuts in probably manpower, definitely in operational issues like equipment, office supplies, money to further investigations. Where it would really hurt us the most would be in the meth lab issue itself. Where we're at in Jasper County, I think we're pushing between 30 and 35 meth labs for the year and this would affect our ability to process these things, our ability to really investigate those things."

Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said his department and the Neosho Police Department operate a cooperative narcotics unit in Newton County that doesn't depend on federal funding, but a cut in Byrne Grant money would indirectly affect his officers.

"Druggers don't have boundaries and they don't care about jurisdictions," Copeland said. "And that's where the Jasper County Drug Task Force as well as the Southwest Missouri Drug Task Force come in handy for us. They do pass on information they develop of people who might be in our area and we get a lot of information from those folks. Plus we can draw on their resources if we have something that's going to be a long-term thing or need more people. Any cuts won't directly affect us, we'll continue to combat the drug problem in Newton County, but it's not a good deal to loose this funding, I don't know who in the government thinks they are helping by cutting this funding."

Mo. drug bust nets 247 arrests

Missouri law officers have arrested 247 people in a statewide drug crackdown.

Missouri was one of 38 states participating in the one-day drug enforcement operation. It was part of an effort to highlight a U.S. Justice Department grant program that law officers fear could be cut in the federal budget.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says law officers around the state seized nearly 17 pounds of marijuana, more than 4 pounds of cocaine, a little over 5 ounces of crack cocaine, 691 various pills, 24 weapons and more than $8,000. The effort also resulted in 16 meth lab busts.

By the Numbers

Operation Byrne Blitz in Jasper County:

15 felony arrests

8 misdemeanor arrests

2 meth labs seized

3 partial labs seized

1 sawed off shotgun seized

1 set of body armor seized

Operation Byrne Blitz in the rest of southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas:

36 arrests, 17 for pseudoephedrine

28 marijuana plants seized

26 guns seized

22 boxes of cold medicine seized

15 grams of methamphetamine seized

9 pounds of processed marijuana seized

7 meth labs seized

6 search warrants served

Carthage Press